14 | AUGUST 5 • 2021

A

n era ended at the
Detroit Jewish News
on July 26, 2021, with
news of the death of community
icon and our beloved colleague
Danny Raskin at age 102, after
having suffered a fall several weeks
before. For the first time in the
history of the paper, we have to
move forward without him, and
it won’t be the same. You’ll have
to forgive us for wishing we had
more time with someone who had
already enjoyed so many years —
all lived to the absolute fullest.
Danny has been with the
paper since its beginning in 1942.
Although he turned down found-
ing Publisher Philip Slomovitz’s
invitation to become his associate
editor, he offered to help by writ-
ing a column, the “Jewish Youth’s
Listening Post,
” and he’s had a col-
umn appear in every single issue
— every single one — through
July 29, more than 79 years’ worth.
Over those 79 years, Danny
has impacted countless lives and
shared countless stories in our
pages and with his co-workers,
some of them hard to believe,
like the time he shared pie with
the junior varsity of the Purple
Gang or being given a watch by
the gangster Bugsy Siegel’s former
girlfriend or the time he sent a
personal note to Hitler himself,
scrawled upon a bomb by an
American airman just before it
was dropped. All the stories were

GOODBYE, DEAR FRIEND

The life and legacy
of Danny Raskin.

JACKIE HEADAPOHL
DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL

you gave
us the
best!

Thank you,
Danny...

DAVID SACHS

JN Director of Editorial Jackie
Headapohl and Danny Raskin after
they both received honors from the
Detroit Chapter of the Society of
Professional Journalists in 2019.